I had been eyeing Sasha for a little while now. And as time went on, I knew that I liked her. There were a few problems, though. Fiona didn't know about this, and neither did August. And Sasha hated Hyperion and everything I represented with passion. But I was now on my way to talk about it with her. I had to take charge, to set things straight.

It was the end of yet another day on Pandora, and of course we had decided to stop for the night. Fiona and Vaughn had decided to go and take a little walk before it would be too dark. I wasn't worried for I knew that Fiona would keep Vaughn safe. I hadn't really seen August in a little while, but I still knew that he was somewhere nearby. And so were Gortys and Loader Bot, exchanging.. oil recipes, or whatever.. Listen, I still don't know what robots do on their spare time. The most important thing here was that I had been left alone with Sasha, so I had the most perfect opportunity to talk with her. And so I proceeded with my plan. I saw Sasha staring at the quickly darkening horizon, so I gathered all of my courage and walked to her and sat down.

- Hey, Sasha,

I started and sounded a little nervous. She turned her gaze to me.

- Hey, Rhys,

she responded and I continued:

- Listen, I.. I wanted to talk with you about some things..

Sasha stared at me for a while and said:

- Okay.. go on, I'm listening.

I took another deep breath and proceeded.

- Listen, I.. I know you don't exactly think too high about me and other people who work for Hyperion..

I started. Sasha was quick to nod.

- You're right, I don't. In fact I hate you guys. I don't understand how can you work in a place like that,

she wondered.

- Yeah, well.. It's all I've ever known, really.. But that's not all I wanted to talk about. I wanted to talk about us..

My voice faded a little, and got Sasha tilt her head a bit.

- About us?

she repeated.

- Well, yeah.. listen, I'm hoping that we can put our differences behind us, because I.. really like you. That's putting it lightly, actually,

I said and ran a hand through my hair.

- The time we've spent together got me really thinking, and I.. I think I'm going crazy about you..

Sasha fell silent after those words and I was too afraid to rush her, so I didn't really know what she was thinking.

August had turned up from somewhere when we were talking, and most likely heard at least most of everything. He came closer, grabbed my arm and pulled me aside.

- Hey, Rhys,

he said without looking directly into my eyes. His grasp was firm.

- I haven't said this too often, not even to Sasha, but she's a good girl.. woman, I should say. And I'm going to kill you if you hurt her in any way. If you're going to steal her from me, you should at least do it properly. And you know what? I haven't exactly been the best kind of boyfriend, so I'm not really even offended. Anyway, I just wanted to tell you that. Are we clear?

For a while I could only stare. It was kind of unusual to hear August talk so much at once. But finally I managed to nod at him.

- Y-yeah..

I stammered slightly.

- We're clear.

- Good,

August only said and walked away. I kind of felt bad for him, and almost ran after him but figured he needed some alone time. He always had this tough guy act going on, but it was clear that he cared about Sasha, even though he wasn't good at showing his feelings. Sasha had turned to face us and I heard her ask:

- Hey, where is he going?

As I turned back to her, I said:

- I.. I think he just gave his blessing to us.. You know, I really feel bad, I didn't mean to scare him away.

I sat back down next to Sasha and she went on:

- Well, I told you before that we.. weren't really a couple. I guess August still thinks that we had something special, but.. I never really felt that way. He's a good guy, he just..

Sasha fell silent once again so I finished her sentence.

- He just.. is really into guns.

Sasha let out a silent laughter.

- Yeah.. I kind of wish can still be friends after this, I've known him for a while after all.. But I guess we had to break up at some point.

I let her words sink into my head.

- Listen, Rhys, I still hate your.. well, Hyperion, pretty much everything about it, but the stun baton that you once let me play with, was really, really cool. And I could almost kill someone if I could use it again. So uh..

- So you're saying that you'll take me as I am if you get a cool stun baton as a bonus?

I asked and we both laughed.

- Well.. yeah! Or.. if we'll try things out first, see how everything goes?

she added and I gave her a nod.

- I'm in. But uh.. I'm kind of worried that your sister's going to kill me, honestly..

I confessed and she laughed again.

- Nah. We'll talk to her together when she comes back with Vaughn.

I nodded again. Sasha's idea sounded good, and maybe one day we really would put our different pasts aside and focus on the truly important things.